Chapter 52

Flying back to the helicarrier with Banner and Romanoff felt odd. Daisy had been working there for months, but it was different now. Now the Avengers would be there to save the world. Hopefully Daisy would have more chances to help. She would not just stay on the sidelines again. She was basically an agent now, she could fight.

Once they landed, Fury came to talk to Banner, and Daisy went back to her desk. Just as she sat down and spun in her chair, she heard a voice. "Daisy?"

She turned to see Steve Rodgers heading over to her "Oh, hey. This must be annoying, coming in before you can even get settled into the new time."

"No, actually, this is good, fighting feels…normal." How sad for anyone to be used to war. "Um, tell your mom thanks for showing me how to use a cell phone."

Daisy almost corrected that Pepper wasn't her mom, but figured she shouldn't lie. "I was surprised that you came around. Was there something you needed?"

Steve blushed. "No, it was stupid… I just like talking to you. You remind me of someone I used to know."

"I I am his granddaughter," Daisy laughed.

"No, not Howard, Peggy."

Peggy, Peggy Carter? Daisy laughed at the sheer thought of being compared to the hero of a woman and S.H.I.E.L.D Peggy Carter.

I'm serious," Steve smiled a bit, and Daisy felt her heart flutter No! No! No! She could not be crushing on Steve Rodgers. You can't just have a crush on Captain America! "You're both bold, smart, beautiful…"

Daisy blushed pink, and then red when Natasha spoke up "Stop flirting with the intern and let her track down Loki."

"Sorry," Captain Rodgers back off as it he'd actually been bother Daisy and not making her day "'ll let you get back to work."

She did go back to work but couldn't focus. It wasn't just Captain Rodgers distracting her. I was the fact that Thor's brother was causing trouble Clint was being mind controlled. Her dad had yet to show up. Was something wrong? Should she all and make sure he was coming? Would that make him think she was a scared child? Daisy wasn't scared, but she felt useless. She had every program she knew of searching for Loki, but he wasn't showing his head. She could find him if anyone could but…

"He's heading to Germany, Daisy announced to the Avengers. "Probably because of the Iridium there." No one asked how she knew that. She was a Stark-they tended to know everything.

And then the Avengers left and Daisy was back alone at her desk wondering how she ever thought life as a communications agent would be more interesting than begging for an Iron girl suit.

"Daisy Maria Stark." The Avengers returned victorious, with Loki, Thor, and Daisy's dad in tow. "I know you're here. Saying you have a high-flying assignment is very clever considering."

Daisy blushed as everyone stared while Tony called to her. They knew he was her dad of course; the days of hiding as Daisy Johnson were long past. Still, no one expected him to call her out the moment he arrived on the helicarrier. They didn't know him. They didn't know that that was exactly the kind of thing he did.

"Yes," Daisy answered heading over to where her dad was being himself. "Does the great Iron Man need something?"

"Flower of Midgard!" Thor greeted crushing Daisy in a bro hug. Nat laughed at Daisy's horror. Tony was even more horrified. Steve looked away embarrassed. "The man of iron is your father! I almost crushed him in battle until the Captain mentioned you."

Tony turned to Fury who was watching them casually. "Does my daughter know all of them?"

"Yes," the Avengers admitted and Tony glared. Daisy laughed: someone didn't want to share.

"Relax Dad," Daisy patted him on the shoulder. "You're still my favorite hero."

Her dad beamed, and then Daisy remembered her boss was standing there Oops. "Sorry, Director. I'll get back to work"

"Let her stay with us," Tony suggested. "She can help." Daisy doubted there was much she could do that they couldn't, but she would be glad not to be stuck at her desk and to be here with the heroes.

Fury seemed amused b toe proposition, but nodded. "Fine, Agent Stark is in charge. Get to work and find the Tesseract."

Bruce and Tony began speaking, and Daisy appeared to be the only one who could keep up. She didn't pay much attention though. She was looking at the little device her dad had attached to Fury's computer.

"And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

Daisy wasn't really paying attention to the science talk, but she knew enough to keep an ear out for her father's more offensive comments. "Ignore my father," Daisy told Dr. Banner. "He's a raging alcoholic and certifiable idiot."

"I don't mind," Banner smiled kindly at Daisy. "Let me show you the lab, Mr. Stark. We can get to work finding that cube."

Tony looked between his daughter and the other Avengers, shocked that not even Daisy would side with him. He shouldn't have been shocked. She loved her dad, but she also accepted that he was about as mature as a baby.

Still, he didn't object as Daisy led them to the lab. No, he was a sucker for a good lab. Computers and machines made him about as happy as Daisy and Pepper. (But Daisy liked to think he was finally reaching a point where the humans could come first.)

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer Cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops," Tony suggested as he and Banner babbled about how to find the Tesseract quickly.

"You know I set H.O.M.E.R. up with J.A.R.V.I.S," Daisy interjected and everyone stared. "What? I was bored. Anyway if you wanted to you could combine their processing power to speed things up. I could also tap into all S.H.I.E.L.D devices, use them to run it. Granted I could do that with all Stark Phones too, use a fraction of their power for this, but the security would be a nightmare."

Tony nodded his approval, and Daisy beamed. She loved succeeding outside her father, but she loved her father appreciating her success even more. "Start with S.H.I.E.L.D. It's time we found ourselves an alien toy."